This was a bastard of an episode to put together. Partly that was down to being ill at the moment, and partly it was down to having had much less stuff edited and ready to go for this episode; everything was in pieces, so there was more work to do than usual last week.

Anyhow. Enough waffle. If you wish to discuss the episodes, I suggest you head over to Facebook, where the Brannigan's Vortex group share their theories as to the greater conspiracy. Or post a comment below.

SPOILER WARNING: Do not read on unless you have watched Brown Mirror!

THE ELVI

This was quite a late addition to the ep. The phrase "12-ish Presleys" just popped into my head in bed at the start of last week. Originally, I intended to do something based upon the "12 Ronnies" - which was a fake teletext ad I did a while back. That might've been funnier, but might not have travelled as well...

GOUJON JOHN'S ARTESIAN SELECTION

Obviously, this was meant to be "artisan" collection, but - bless him - that's not what I got. So, I tried to make a virtue out of it. Sort of. This was one of the first pieces of footage I had stockpiled for the series, but never got around to finishing until last Friday... basically the last bit I needed was the stuff in the background with the goujon in the box/box in the bush.

CHEF COPS

Most of the Kenny and Yuri Masters clips in this ep was a case of letting Paul and Iain start improvising, while I lobbed in the occasional suggestion. I love these two together - they weren't even conceived as recurring characters, it just became obvious when you saw them side-by-side. I have since developed a whole backstory for them - and how they fit into the Xenoxxxverse.

BAXTER'S BUM FARM

One of the very first things I wrote for the series - here starring the great Larry Bundy Jr. Obviously, it's a one-gag sketch, but... like most things in Found Footage... has wider implications. In fact, it's one of the most important sketches in the entire series in that regard.

BENJI COLESLAW

You may remember Benji Coleslaw from Goujon John's Celebrity Ghostel... which had originally been Benji Coleslaw's Celebrity Ghostel, until I decided to replace most of his footage with GJ. Inexplicably, he has his fans, following that first, brief, appearance, and so... here he is again, delivering the news in his own inimitable style.

And... oh... is that a callback to Biffovision and Digitiser there...?

REFLECTIONS

I realised after the fact that this was a rather evocative of The Ponderers from Vic Reeves' Big Night Out. Entirely unintentional, as it was put together from outtakes from another sketch (that you'll likely see next week).

HAMMERDAY

This was meant to be used for the Tea Prancer sketch from Ep 1... until we realised that we'd accidentally given lovely Stuart Ashen a hammer instead of any tea cups. I knew I wanted to use the footage somehow... but didn't know how until about 4pm last Friday, when I put this little bit together.

CHEESE HOLES

Those of you who were at the series premiere will remember that Cheese Holes was originally part of episode 2. I chose to move it because it didn't fit in that ep somehow. I cut it down slightly to speed it up, and - weirdly - stylistically, it seems to fit in this one much better.

Given that this was one of the first sketches I wrote, it's a good example, though, of how my approach to the series has changed.

FLAPS! FLAPS! FLAPS!

This is just me playing around to see, once again, if I can use horror tropes as a way of getting laughs. It's that whole thing of laughing as a way of relieving tension. Plus, I always found the show Through The Keyhole a bit creepy and stalker-y.

"WIGGIDA-WHAAAACK!"

It's my boy DJ Trendy Peanut. This has been sitting on the shelf for ages too, partly because I couldn't face editing it as I'd lost a bunch of the handheld footage from the shoot. Obviously, regrettably, I'm in this. Which I don't really enjoy, but - as ever - I didn't feel I could get anyone else to suffer the indignities I forced upon myself.

RUN FROM THE RUNS

So, yes... by now you're realising that there's obviously a bit of a poo theme to this episode. I decided early on to get all the poo out of my system (so to speak) by putting it in one ep - that way, anyone who didn't find scatological funnies to be funny could just skip it.

​Obviously, there's a bit of poo-jokery in some of the other eps, and the poo stuff IS actually very important to the ongoing story. But - hey - don't say I don't ever consider those of a sensitive nature.

BENSON'S BROWN HONEY

This was based on a spoof teletext ad that I did last year - you know: one of the ones which people keep mistaking for things which ran on Digi back in the day. We'd never have gotten away with this one on Digi.

THE MULTIVERSE WILL TREMBLE

Is he a good guy? Is he a bad guy? Does it matter? Next Sunday's ep is the last one before the finale. Brace yourselves...

Absolutely loved this episode. The Artisian Goujons bit was possibly the best GJ segment yet, and I loved the creepiness of Through the Flaps.

Kenny and Yuri were a highlight as well. I loved Dancing Masters, but this bit was even better, mostly due to the brilliant interaction between Iain and Paul.

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Matthew Long

10/10/2017 10:29:53 pm

I think this is my favourite Kenny and Yuri segment so far. It's the first one that hasn't disturbed me, anyway.

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Keith Richards

9/10/2017 12:20:41 pm

Brown Honey, how come you taste so funny.

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Spiney O’Sullivan

10/10/2017 11:35:26 pm

I don’t know why I thought a show with an episode called Brown Mirror was good dinnertime viewing. I sat down to eat exactly as this sketch came on.

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RichardM

9/10/2017 01:53:20 pm

Favourite episode so far, favourite song so far. I take your point about not asking anyone to lie on the floor and be funnelled full of pills / have pretend diarrhoea run down their leg.... Always glad to see my man Doctor Derek Doctors. And: did Iain Lee really hit Paul Gannon quite hard? Professionals, the pair of them.

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Biscuit lover

9/10/2017 01:55:31 pm

Hilarious tea cup/hammer mix-up!

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DEAN

9/10/2017 04:03:47 pm

Really enjoyed this episode - probably my favourite since The Awakening actually. And, curiously, nothing to do with the poo stuff:

Loved Embellish My Trellis and it sure was cool to see Dr D.D.
Cheese Monkey, though.... favourite new character!

Really looking forward to the next one - A LOT!

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Matthew Long

10/10/2017 10:32:45 pm

Embellish My Trellis was inspired. The name alone made me laugh out loud!

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King of Duckhenrys

9/10/2017 07:03:53 pm

So glad that Kenny and Yuri returned. I thought that we'd seen the last of Yuri.

I know that this bucks popular opinion that each new ep is "the best yet", but I really didn't enjoy the last two that much. There were some good bits for sure, but I was starting to lose interest a bit.

I enjoyed this episode a lot more, loads of good stuff. I was tense throughout the flaps bit. I had the Princess of Duckhenrys asleep on me while I was watching, and had I woken her up because of the jumpscare I was anticipating, I would have been a dead man.

One thing that tickled me was the victim of Embellish My Trellis, who looked like she was utterly embarrassed to be there. Somehow it made the funky duo's antics even funnier.

Watching this episode with my other half made me very conscious of just how avant garde the whole thing is. More intriguing than loltastic this week, although twelvish Presley was worth the admission price alone. That artesian goujon bit was "well boring" though *high-fives-self*

I've expected the poo theme to the episode, but how it was done still caught me off-guard, to be fair. Not a fan of that kind of humor (seems to be that there are a lot of fans around though with people being okay over Harley Queen practically doing what poor MC Stringy Hobo did there in the Batmobile in recent animated feature - cringe was all over the place), but essentially it works plot-wise - one of the themes is obviously Xenoxxx struggling to regain control over their media airing everything that was in the archives, including the things that were rejected even by their deranged censors (Simon Bates?). Reminded me of Skynet throwing of infiltrator endoskeletons as additional units in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" when it knew that John Connor was winning.

With that said that episode felt more like horror then comedy and succeeded at throwing a lot of tension and suspense. Pete is, of course, amazing, it's nice to see Ashwani Thakur as Benji Coleslaw again (it's not his real name) and overall casting of each and single episode never ceases to amaze - Stuart Ashen and Larry Bundy Jr. were featured more substantially and they were both awesome players.

My highlights are:
-Scenes with Kenny and Yuri, especially a sudden serious one which implies that these two guys are not what they seemed;
-Chef Cops premise;
-"Reflections". For some reason it touched something in me deeply, reminding me of 90's Post-Soviet art TV programs and something else I can't quite pinpoint;
-Hammerday. It's great to see footage filmed with one purpose successfully re-worked into something else while still serving the premise and style of the overall project. It is something I do a lot for my own works and inspiration in that field is always appreciated and studied closely;
-"Cheese Holes" arrest footage. Loved how SWAT-like guys are acting it completely straight while cast of the show is staying in-character;
-"Through the Flaps" is an amazing parody of a more traditional version of found footage genre. Smart, suspenseful, and tongue-in-cheek at the same time;
-Of course, final scene and the fact that end credits are scored differently works great as well.

And it is an honor to appear in yet another brief cameo. I'm also a bit glad and relieved it was not poo-related in any way. ;)

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Kent Callaghan

13/10/2017 03:56:43 pm

There's a school of thought that the 5th episode of a series of 6 is usually the weakest, which isn't true here, I rate it among the best. I did wonder though if subconsciously somewhere give the reputation for episode 5 for being a bit poo, that you put more literal poo in it?